Interaction between food supplements and medicinal products

As such, food supplements cannot exert a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action like medicinal products; their use is not intended to treat or prevent diseases in humans or to modify physiological functions. Instead, food supplements are intended to correct nutritional deficiencies, maintain an adequate intake of certain nutrients, or to support specific physiological functions (source: EFSA).

Food supplements represent a significant portion of self-care product sales: for example, a total of 1.2 billion packs of minerals and vitamins were purchased by Europeans in 2018 with an aim to improve their health and contribute to their well-being (source: AESGP). With that said, there is considerable possibility of side effects or harmful interactions of food supplements with certain medicines, since many supplements contain active ingredients that can have a strong effect in the body. For instance:

• Vitamin K can reduce the ability of certain blood thinners to prevent blood from clotting.
• Grapefruit juice and its preparations can block the breakdown of many drugs (incl. but not limited to statins, beta-blockers, calcium antagonists, antiarrhythmic drugs, benzodiazepines, some antibiotics, oestrogens etc.) and thereby lead to drug build-up in the body.
• Antioxidant supplements, like vitamins C and E, might reduce the effectiveness of some types of cancer chemotherapy.

A supplements’ safety depends on many things, such as its chemical composition, how it works in the body, how it is prepared, and the dose used. In the Republic of Croatia, official inspection of health safety and compliance of food supplements with regulations is performed by the sanitary inspection of the State Inspectorate.

For monitoring purposes, all food supplements intended for marketing in the Republic of Croatia must be registered in the register of food supplements and foods for special medical purposes of the Croatian Ministry of Health (MZRH). Marti Farm has the required expertise to help you with everything you need in the process of notifying the aforementioned competent authority of the placing of your food supplement product on the market in the Croatian territory.